10:22 a.m., Saturday, Kanagawa District, near train station of Enoshima
Sendoh arrived at the Ryokan he had left Merilyn the day before, still feeling a little unsure if he should really accept the offer of a new fishing rod from her. He scratched his cheek absentmindedly, thinking that it was a mosquito bite.
Then he saw her, sitting there on a bench in the front garden of the Ryokan, in a navy-colored dress. Her wavy hair parted to the side, the end of it caressed her collar bones. Still with those beautiful cat-eyed, red lips, she still looked like a figure from a word-war II movie.
She was observing a sparrow as it sat on the sand, wiggling in the pit and fluffing its feather for a sand-bath.
"Ah, good morning!" he said, a little embarrassed by his tardiness.
"Ohayo-gozaimasu!" she chirped, merrily as she stood up. "Well, show the way then," she gesturing to him to the gate, "You know the fishing stores here better than I do."
"Are you sure about this?" He asked as they walked side by side out of the gate of the Ryokan, him holding the gate open for her. Inside of him he wanted to say, a fishing rod is expensive.
"Dead sure." She nodded, without looking at him.
And with that they both walked out onto the street towards the train station. They chatted about nothing in particular. He could see that she was still deep in thoughts about the whole situation, with the story, the real world; though she tried to appear cheerful.
The train they needed to take just arrived at the station when they got there.
"So did you meet Rukawa yesterday?" she asked suddenly as they sat themselves opposite each other. As it was no longer rush hour, there were still empty seats on the carriage.
"Huh?" Sendoh was surprised, "How did you know?"
"It is in the story."
"Ah," 'there she goes again', he thought, 'with all this story and stuff.' For a moment he thought maybe she was a bit delusional, "Yes, he wanted to play one-on-one with me."
"I know."
The train went through a tunnel as everything around them turned dark.
"He wanted to ask if there are stronger players than me in the National."
"And what did you say?"
"I told him there was a guy name Kitasawa that I could not beat in middle school."
"His name is Sawakita," she said while looking out of the window, the gray cityscape swept into view as the train exited the tunnel, "Eiji Sawakita."
He felt the blood drained again from his brain.
"Oh really?" he scratched his face absentmindedly, a little embarrassed that she knew more about High School basketball players in Japan than he did.
"Yes, he played basketball with his dad since young, and he will be leaving for America soon, after the Inter-High."
"That is in the story too?"
She smiled faintly now, "Yes."
Maybe not as delusional as he had hoped.
"He wants to go too."
"Who?"
"Rukawa."
"Go where?"
"America."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but Anzai-sensei refused." She said now, her gaze was still focusing on something out of the carriage, "he said he is still not as good as you. And he should become Japan number one High School Player first."
"Is that why he came to challenge me?"
"Yeah I guess so, who knows." Merilyn shrugged. Rukawa's motivation to challenge him was never very explicitly exposed in the story.
She turned her gaze now to him, "So what do you think about him?"
"Who? Rukawa?"
Silent nod.
"Well, he is definitely a very good player, explosive power, good techniques, and improving fast."
"I mean as a person." Her eyes had the curious intensity that he had not seen before.
"Well," he pondered a little, "if he wasn't so fixed on beating me, I guess we could be friends."
"And Sakuragi?"
Sendoh looked at his travel companion, pondering.
"He definitely has talents."
"And he needs to practice like crazy." She said, with a cheeky wink.
At this, he led out a soft laugh, feeling a little deflated that she seemed to know everything about him, his conversation, his opponent, "That's right."
Then they rode in silent until the desired station, each with an inexplicable smile on their face.
In the fishing store, Sendoh managed to pick up the same fishing rod that he had lost the day before. Merilyn took out her credit card to pay.
"Are you…. really sure about this?" Sendoh stuttered.
"Yes I am!" she nodded without even glancing at him, and handed her credit card over.
The store owner peered at Sendoh, mischief in his eyes as he pondered the relationship between the two.
They definitely did not look like siblings.
Sendoh made sure to look innocent the whole time.
As they left the store, rod in hand, he heard her say "I wonder if the money I use now will be deducted from my bank account in the real world." She smiled sheepishly, "if not, I should spend more!"
Sendoh could only smile bitterly to himself. Every time she talked about the real world, a world he never knew, his heart sank. It was like as if his world didn't exist, his life, his surrounding, everything he ever knew, did not exist; never had.
He had been living in a fictional cocoon his entire life. For all she knew, he wasn't even real.
The time was now 11:45 a.m.
"Hey,"
A hand on his arm shook Sendoh out from his reverie.
He looked down to see two large cat-eyes looking back at him.
"Wanna eat ramen?"
"Erhhh…" he found himself stuttering, his feet shuffling.
"No worries, my treat." She said, waving her hand dismissively as her eyes narrowed through a smile, "you are a student, so it's normal you have limited pocket money."
He felt his ears going a little red. She was right on that.
"So where is the best ramen store around here?"
Sendoh had no choice but to point to one direction, "There." and led the way. He thought that this woman was so confident, direct and brute, that she was not like any Japanese girls he had met.
Before long they arrived at the ramen store. After being seated at the counter, she ordered Tonkotsu ramen, Gyoza, and Tori-Kaarage.
He was surprised for the amount of food ordered by such a tiny person.
When the steaming bowls of noodles arrived, Sendoh, being Japanese, did as any Japanese would.
He cowered over the bowl of noodles and started slurping loudly, until he noticed that she was staring at him.
Feeling a little embarrassed, he wiped some soup off his mouth, "What?"
"How do you do that?" she asked, genuinely interested.
"Do what?"
"Slurp like that."
"Urgh… " Sendoh found his ears going a little red, "Urgh, I don't know. Just put the noodles in your mouth and suck I guess?"
Two large curious eyes stared back at him, her lips widened into a smile, "That's all?"
"That's all."
"Alright, I will try." She said, while hovering her head over the bowl.
However, no matter how she tried, she failed miserable. At the end she resorted to curling the noodles around her chopsticks to eat, alternating between the ramen and the two of the side dishes.
He couldn't help but gawked. He never saw a woman ate that much before.
"So when does practice start?" she asked while lifting the bowl to her lips to drink the soup from it.
"Urgh, at one."
"Is it far from here?"
"No, just a few stations."
"Can I come to watch?"
"Urgh….."
"Worry about what your team mates will say if you show up with a woman?"
He did not answer for a few seconds. 'This woman is just too straight forward.' He thought, and he wasn't use to it. He was more use to… well, squealing and blushing fan girls really.
"Or worry about what your fan girls will think that you show up with an older woman?"
"No, not that, I don't care about that."
"Then," she patted him on the back, "I am coming with you to practice. I want to see Uozumi in real life, to see if he is really that big."
Sendoh looked at her, almost speechless. He had thought to say Uozumi had retired and will not be at practice today, but no words came out of his half-opened mouth.
"I never thought Japanese High Schooler would be that big," she said absentmindedly, "Well, not where I am from anyway."
Sendoh understood that when she meant where she was from, she meant the real world.
"Don't worry, just say I am your cousin or something." She seemed to have seen through his thoughts.
"I am not worried about that."
Then nothing further was spoken about Merilyn going with him to see the Ryonan team practice.
It was 1:35 p.m. when they finally arrived at the basketball gym.
The first thing that hit Sendoh was Coach Taoka's fury.
"Sendoh! What are you doing!? You are late again!" yelled a fuming Coach Taoka, waving his fist in the air.
"Don't you know that you are the captain now? You gotta be more punctual! Everyone is waiting for you! And where the hell were you yesterday!?"
"I am sorry, coach!" Sendoh flashed his charming smile, hoping to evade any potential scolding, "I was… was caught up in something…"
"Like what?"
"Like me!" then popped out a head from behind the tall frame of the teenager.
She was so pretty that Coach Taoka was stunned for a second, and then blushed slightly.
"He lost his fishing rod while trying to save me from falling into the water, so I got him a new one as a token of thanks."
Sendoh gapped, "Don't say that….." but it was too late.
"WHAAAT?" Coach Taoka fumed again, screaming now on the top of his lungs, "You WENT fishing!? On the day of your new Captaincy you actually WENT fishing!? What are you thinking Sendoh!? You big DUMMY!"
"Take it easy Taoka-san," chipped in Merilyn as she took a step forward, wedging herself between the coach and the new captain, "he took a lot of toll during the District Tournament. He needs a break too."
With that Coach Taoka went quiet, starring at the pretty woman in front of him, still trembling with anger.
"He had to lead the team in Uozumi's absence, managing both offence and defense on court for 2 days in a roll. Even as a genius, that is just too much." said Merilyn in a matter-of-fact kind of tone, "He is still just a 17 years old kid you know."
Sendoh blushed a little; he was used to having his backside covered by his teammates, but never by a stranger. Then he felt someone budging him with an elbow behind him.
It was Koshino, the guard of the Ryonan who was perpetually angry.
"Who is this woman you brought?" Koshino asked in a whisper into his ear, though not less intimidating, "What is with you? Yesterday it was Rukawa who came looking for you, and now you brought a woman to our practice?"
From the corner of his eyes he could see Fukuda looking at him from the corner of the court, with an expression he couldn't read.
"Erh, she… she is my cousin…" Sendoh stuttered, thinking about the explanation Merilyn gave him earlier.
"I never knew you had a cousin…"
"Yeah, neither did I…" Sendoh was struggling to explain further, "she… she just came from oversea yesterday…"
"Hi,"
Now Koshino noticed a hand stuck out to him to shake, "I am Merilyn Sendoh, Sendoh's distant cousin. I arrived from Australia yesterday."
Deep down inside she kicked herself. She was not sure if "Australia" existed in the Slam Dunk world. Damn, I should have said America, she thought to herself.
Sendoh was surprised that she adopted his last name so readily for a lie.
"Ah hi…." Koshino hesistated a little by the openness of the woman, but took the hand nonetheless, "Nice meeting you."
'Such a straight forward, no nonsense kind of woman, which is almost non-existence in Japanese society.' He thought to himself.
"So, do ignore my presence, I just want to watch you guys practice." Merilyn said while gesturing to one of the side bench, "Shall I just sit over there?"
On the bench was a rather stunned looking Aida Hikoichi, who was frantically jotting down notes on his dog-eared book.
"Sure, sure," said Hikoichi, "please do." and moved himself to create a free space for her.
With that Merilyn strode to the bench and sat down.
In his notebook Hikoichi Aida wrote: "Sendoh-san has a cousin from Australia! Must check out!" He also made a mental note to inform his sister, Aida Yayoi.
Sendoh felt his team mates eyeing him suspiciously, and he could spot a few disappointed faces among his fan girls.
'Oh well, what's done is done…'
He shrugged and started the warm-up laps, followed by practice drill.
"Hey, is she really your cousin?" Fukuda asked as the power forward jogged passed him.
"Urgh…, yes she is." What else was there to say?
"She doesn't seem very Japanese."
"Well, she grew up in Australia, like she said."
Fukuda said no more as they resumed practice